The fog gradually thickened, spreading across the streets. Frost covered the dirt roads slick with wastewater, and firelight sprang to life in the windows of every home. Thick black smoke curled up from the chimneys.

No wonder even the homeless and beggars scavenged scraps of wood and trash to build fires. The damp, freezing fog alone was enough to claim a life in the middle of a sweet dream.

Something felt off. The fog here was far too thick. Even the bonfires could only barely drive it back, and buildings even a little way off were impossible to make out. All I could see were their lit windows.

I huddled in a corner of the alley, peering out through its entrance, trying to catch a glimpse of the night beyond and see what kind of city I’d ended up in. But I couldn’t make out a thing. It wasn’t just the fog—even the wall right beside me was a blur.

If there hadn’t been people tending a bonfire in the alley, I wouldn’t have been able to see anything in the dark. The homeless people looked like moving mosaics to me.

Night blindness. I remembered—it was a common symptom of malnutrition, making it hard to see at night. That made sense. One look at this girl’s body told me how badly malnourished she was.

They say ordinary people in ancient times often suffered from night blindness. I was just glad most of the homeless here had it too. Once night fell, they couldn’t see me huddled in the corner.

It should’ve been dinnertime by now. The delicious smell of food drifted through the fog, and my stomach growled. I was so hungry it almost hurt. I’d never felt hunger like this in my previous life.

I bet that ever since Parula got sick, greedy, stingy Mackduff hadn’t given her a proper meal. The moment he saw the original owner of this body fall ill, he’d been eager to throw her out. He’d never waste so much as a scrap of food on someone he was planning to abandon anyway.

The illness in my body was even worse. I must have had a high fever, though I had no idea if I also had a cold or something else. But after going through the agony of that strange illness, I could actually endure how awful I felt now.

It felt like I’d been left here to die. If I somehow made it through the night and lived to see tomorrow, what would I do then?

Pick up some cotton or something, if I could find any. I needed to keep warm tonight, and I needed to find food. But there was no way I could bring myself to eat garbage. Should I go back to begging?

Whatever happened, I had to get through the immediate crisis first. Then… As I kept thinking, sleep began to creep over me. A sick, malnourished girl’s body just didn’t have any energy. I was scared and miserable, but my consciousness kept sinking away.

In a daze, half asleep and half awake, I felt my body growing colder and colder. So cold. At this rate, I might die again before long.

How ridiculous. Was I really going to die twice in such a short time? Would I see that disgusting Big Fly after I died? Would I get reincarnated again?

Still, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. Reincarnation was a tricky business. My luck had been awful this time. I might as well die and try again. Maybe next time I’d get a better life—at least a normal start, right?

Just as my mind began to drift, footsteps suddenly sounded from the alley entrance. I didn’t open my eyes. I was about to die anyway. Whoever came, it didn’t matter to me.

But the footsteps came straight to the corner where I was hiding and stopped in front of me. I opened my eyes, tense with fear that whoever it was might mean trouble—but then I saw a familiar figure.

Jayard. He’d actually come. I’d thought his promise to come back was just a lie to comfort me. But what good would it do for him to come here? He wasn’t a doctor.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” Jayard crouched down and picked me up again. This time, he’d found a big towel somewhere and wrapped me in it before carrying me straight out of the alley.

The homeless people in the alley watched him with unfriendly looks. But when they realized it was Jayard, they looked away. He was pretty well known around this neighborhood—and, more importantly, he worked for Mackduff. Mackduff’s temper was notorious. At least none of these scattered homeless people dared to make him angry.

“Why?” I asked. I had a lot of questions, really, but what I wanted to know most was what he was planning to do. Why come get me at night? Where was he taking me?

“I’m sorry I’m late. Mackduff only just fell asleep. I stole a blanket, so you should be a little more comfortable. I’m taking you somewhere safe.” Jayard spoke as he carried me along.

“You stole something from Mackduff? He’ll beat you to death,” I said, shocked. Did he have a death wish?

“I know. That’s why I’m not going back. I know another slum. We’ll hide there and never come back. To hell with Mackduff!” Jayard said through gritted teeth. It seemed he’d been holding a grudge for a long time, too.

Wait, what he was doing was… kind of like running away with me. It felt a little weird to say that when I was a guy, but this body was more like his little sister’s, wasn’t it?

“Can you really survive doing this? Especially with me. There’s no point—I might not live much longer,” I asked. If Jayard stayed, as long as he didn’t defy Mackduff, he’d be treated reasonably well. But running away like this meant stepping into a completely uncertain future.

This wasn’t something he could solve just by knowing how to steal. Would people at a new place bully or ostracize us? We’d need somewhere to live, and we’d have to gather all sorts of necessities from scratch. We’d even have to watch out for people with bad intentions.

As Jayard carried me along, I saw a lot in just that short stretch. Thankfully, this city wasn’t medieval. There were streetlamps burning oil or gas along the roads, and light shone from the homes on either side. Even with my night blindness, I could make out a little.

But even in the short time I’d been looking, I saw all kinds of unbelievable things. In an alley, several men were assaulting a girl dressed in revealing clothes. She was clearly struggling as they dragged her inside, tore her clothes, and pinned her to the ground.

There were still people on the street. She was clearly trying to call for help. Even I could see what was happening with my poor eyesight. Yet every passerby pretended not to notice and kept walking.

And that wasn’t all. On the roof of a house, someone dressed in black seemed to be picking a window lock. They’d blocked the light from the window, which was what made me notice them. Were they in the same line of work as Jayard—or planning to do something even worse?

Finally, there was the loud argument echoing in my ears from a nearby house. It turned into the sounds of a fight and things being smashed. People just stopped to watch, while Jayard carried me past at a brisk pace.

Was law and order really this bad in this city? If we didn’t stick together, wouldn’t two little kids like us be easy targets for criminals? And I was sick on top of that!